At the start of the year, I find myself between creative projects with
different ideas occupying my mind and vying for attention. The start of the new school term means
my day job now claims much of my waking time and energy again after the luxury
of the holidays, just as I'd love to be putting more hours into unraveling some
of those mental strands.
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'Risk Assessment 1: Break Your Bones', Acrylics & Paper
Collage on Paper, 60 cm X 45 cm, 2013 |
The main thing is to recognize that these periods of seeking visual
stimuli, contemplating possibilities and generally sorting wheat from chaff are
all part of the creative process.
Freed from any concerns that I might be losing overall momentum, as once
might have happened, I now understand it's important to put in the spade work
of research and experimentation on the understanding that eventually a coherent
plan of attack will emerge. Last time I felt this way I remembered the importance of compartmentalizing
everything into identifiable motivations, specific visual triggers and discrete
themes, to have something clearly defined to pursue, and to understand where
the connections and over-laps might exist. At such times I often find myself filling the pages of a
pocket sketchbook with spidery written notes and lists whilst juggling images.
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| Lincoln, December 2012 |
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| Lincoln, December 2012 |
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| Lincoln, December 2012 |
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| Lincoln, December 2012 |
Something I have done since Christmas is to take lots of
photographs. Amongst these are
numerous examples of Heath & Safety signage and, in particular, hazard
stripe graphics. I posted some recently and include more here, including one or two that demonstrate my
current desire to get a wider range of expressive qualities into my photography,
both in-camera and through post production. At present, they seem to be pointing towards an overall
theme that I'm provisionally titling 'Risk Assessment' or maybe 'Take
Good Care' in order to ring fence it mentally.
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| Tollerton, Nottinghamshire, January 2013 |
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| Tollerton, Nottinghamshire, January 2013 |
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| Tollerton, Nottinghamshire, January 2013 |
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| Leicester, December 2012 |
I've also produced a couple of paper-based pieces that may become part of a
small series of experiments around the theme. These are quite uncompromising in their textual component
and feel like an attempt to vent the angry frustrations that clouded my own
mundane existence a few weeks ago and which emerge whenever I tune to the radio
news. They point towards a
juxtaposition of the risk/responsibility-aversion of H&S culture with the
real and terrifying existential crises revealed through daily news
bulletins. No one ever writes a
document entitled 'Risk of Civil War', Risk of Religious Fanaticism’ or 'Risk of
Inability to Afford Basic Needs In An Uncaring Society'. They're more like a crude reaction than
a thoroughly considered final statement but sometimes it's healthier to
externalize stuff than to let it fester.
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'Risk Assessment 2: Cut Your Throat', Acrylics & Paper
Collage on Paper, 60 cm X 45 cm, 2013 |
Several other identifiable ideas are beginning to coalesce in my mind,
camera and sketchbook and which, hopefully, I'll discuss here once I’ve made a
little more sense of them.
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| Grantham, Lincolnshire, January 2013 |
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| Grantham, Lincolnshire, January 2013 |
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| Grantham, Lincolnshire, January 2013 |
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| Grantham, Lincolnshire, January 2013 |
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